Customer Reviews

Julia Child and Company

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A sentimental favorite, this is one of the earliest cook books I remember that provides step-by-step photographs. It presents complete meals, includes suggestions for using leftovers and main component alternatives, and is dotted with pages devoted to brief but thorough and entertaining explanations of main ingredients. I recall a discussion of rice and one about tomatoes, for instance. My daughter, establishing now her own household, asked to take my copy, and I am searching for a replacement!

Recipes that work, written with Ms. Child's humor and insight. Dated for sure, though, I still find I go to this book when I want to put zero thought and effort into planning a menu from top to bottom. So take a trip back to the 1970's when the American culinary revolution was in full swing, when we tried to expand our culinary skills, rather than trying to throw meals together in 30 minutes as hard as we try to find the next "superstar" chef. Unlike many popular cookbooks authored by restaurant chefs, as usual, Ms. Child knows what works in the home kitchen.

I think this is a great book because it gives whole menus. It gives you options and gives you shopping lists and timing and what to do with leftovers. There are discussions on tomatoes and fish and others. The recipes turn out too because Miss Julia tested her recipes before she suggested someone try them on their own unlike anything the Food Network is putting out. There is so much in this book and More company I am surprised everyone doesn't want a copy! Maybe now with the glut of books on cooking these seem a little old fashioned but they still work and good food is good food. Like French cooking never really goes out of style because it tastes good, you can always go back to this book for recipes that everyone will enjoy.

Well, it's a decent enough book for what it is, but I guess I'd tend to expect more from Julia. Little more than a record of the first series of Julia Child and Company (her second series, from the late 70s), this book presents menus rather than individual dishes and broadens its focus outside Julia's French tradition. In that regard, it branches out rather nicely. In addition, there are a great deal of pictures in the book, showing things in a way that was not practical for much of her earlier material.

The problem is that it has a spartan feel to it, similar to the French Chef Cookbook. It has Julia's helpful hints and such all over the place, but there's a rushed feeling to the whole thing that takes away from the essential Julianess of the book. It is not the sort of cookbook that encourages you to get comfortable with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee -- it really is more suitable for someone who is watching a JC&Co rerun and just wants the recipes.

As a result, I'm not too sure who to recommend this to. It's a must-have for the Julia completist, but if the show reruns aren't on in your area it's at best an impulse purchase from a used bookstore. Good enough, but not one of her great works by a long shot.

So happy to have found it in hard back. It was sent right away and started using it. I am already a Julia fan, however this book seems to share even more. So glad I bought it!

I bought my first copy of this cookbook years ago and used a few of the recipes. I lost that copy in moving and replaced it with one from Amazon. I now have expanded the number of recipes I am trying and loving. Julia never fails! If you haven't tried the spinach-zuchinni saute, it is still my favorite, and that of many of my dinner guests. Bon Appetit!

I was terribly disappointed with Julia Child and Company and its sequel, Julia Child and More Company. The recipes I tried were okay, but nothing special -- unlike the two-volume Art of French Cooking, or Julia Child's Kitchen, where every single recipe is a masterpiece. For example, the pasta was very flat and nowhere near as good as other recipes I've tried. I gave my copies to a charity garage sale.